Many of you are probably not aware of this but after a business calls it quits it is required by law to paint over its sign. Such is this fine city of ours: if you can imagine it, there’s probably a law on the books pertaining to it. As you can see, gentle readers, some artistic license has been taken here by yours truly. Yes, this is my handiwork. I volunteered to do this for Steve Goldscholle. He is a friend of mine. You are probably thinking this sullen utterance of revolt garnered a great deal of attention and curiosity (being as it is located on Manhattan Avenue and all). It most certainly did. Without argument the most amusing was an agent from the real estate office across the street (which has a listing for this building, the asking price is $3,000,000) running over and imploring Steve to make me stop. He replied that he was simply obeying the law.

Those of you who wish to see the sobering truth about gentrification in Greenpoint— and elsewhere in north Brooklyn for that matter— really should give WNYC’s interactive map (from which I took the above screen grab) a look-see.

Fast Company has a fascinating article entitled “Can You Tell How Dangerous A Neighborhood Is From Just A Picture”. Brooklyn Magazine (which links to this item) writes:

East New York’s number of major crimes more than tripled compared to Greenpoint, but users still ranked Greenpoint streets as feeling less safe,” writes Sydney Brownstone. “The same held true for perceptions of class, despite the fact that Greenpoint’s median household income (in 2010, the latest year data is available) is higher than the total New York average at $58,311, while the median household in East New York makes $34,295…

Bartek presides over the final day of his place of emplnjoyment: Just For Fun. For those of you who are not in the know this establishment (which has graced the Garden Spot for over a decade) has been a personal favorite of yours truly over the years. Whenever I needed, say, several pairs of fake giant rubber breasts or the odd inflatable companion they delivered— with a smile and the occasional bark. I was so impressed I authored my first Yelp review as a result. Read it. (It is a much more awesome testament to this establishment than this post).

So long Barbara and Bartek. May you enjoy your retirement in sunny Florida. You will be missed.

…It is important to dispel the myth that gentrification is a natural process, says twenty-two-year-old Crown Heights resident Nick Petrie, “because it so conveniently leaves out very important actors in the process.” Petrie, a community organizer who has lived in the neighborhood since September, is working in his free time to bring awareness to some of these actors—those who push gentrification for profit—through a group he helps administer called the Crown Heights Assembly. The year-old Occupy-inspired organization has a goal of bringing new and longtime residents together to organize against what they see as predatory housing practices. Specifically, the assembly is focused on exposing what they consider to be collusion between deadbeat landlords and real estate companies that do business with them, like MySpace NYC.

Between fifteen and fifty community members generally attend the group’s monthly meetings, and about two hundred people are on their email list, reports another organizer, Ryan Richardson. In November 2012, the assemb(l)y staged a small protest outside MySpace’s Franklin Avenue office, demanding the company provide prospective tenants a legal rent history and compel landlords to stop displacing residents.

At a recent Crown Heights Assembly meeting, Petrie sat beside his upstairs neighbor, Sonja Bent, fifty-two. Both live in an apartment building at 577 St. Johns Place. Petrie pays $1,800. Bent pays $1,033 for the same amount of space.

Petrie, who is white, says he found the apartment through Craigslist. “The first time I learned it was MySpace” representing it, he said, “was when the logos were on the papers.”Within the first month of living in the apartment, Petrie had dealt with rats in the walls, spotty heating and a ceiling that had collapsed four times, due to a water leak in the apartment above his—Sonja Bent’s.

Bent, who has lived in the apartment for eighteen years, is one of three remaining long-term residents who have refused to give in to the pressures to leave by the building’s landlord, Elcorno Martin, whose 142 reported housing violations rank him among Brooklyn’s “50 Worst Landlords,” according to city Public Advocate Bill de Blasio…

This is but a small segment of a very lengthy and, if disquieting at times, thorough article. What has happened (and continues to happen) in north Brooklyn is hardly an anomaly. Read it!